Hide the Huge Notch on the Google Pixel 3 XL

With the Pixel 3 XL, Google has kept the stereo speakers while offering dual cameras up front. The components need to go somewhere and that’s how the smartphone has a huge notch. You cannot pretend not to see that top part of the display that houses the front-facing camera and other sensors and something tells me that you’ve already made up your mind.

Some users don’t care about it, while others see it as a design error that disrupts the user experience. Which side are you on? There are a lot of good things to say about Google’s new Pixel 3 XL, but this is definitely not one of them. I think that the notch does negatively affect the overall experience of the device, but at least there’s an option to hide it away.

This option can also be found on a variety of other notched Android phones. It doesn’t happen only to you, but to LG, OnePlus, Xiaomi, or Huawei users too and many want it gone for good.

I must though warn you about something. Not everything might work perfectly fine when you load up third-party apps from the Play Store with the notch disabled. The whole point of these developer options for managing the notch is to make it easier for developers to test their apps with a variety of screen shapes, and things may get a little weird.

And even if you like the idea of seeing your Pixel 3 XL with a black bar at the top, this leads to losing more display real estate. The status is normally moved lower and that’s the result. But if you cannot stand that huge notch, it’s a compromise you are most likely willing to take.

How to Hide the Notch:

1. Open Settings from your app drawer or home screen;
2. Scroll down and tap on System;
3. Then, you have to tap About phone;
4. Scroll down to the bottom;
5. Tap the Build number field seven times until you see a dialog box. This will say: “You are now a developer”;
6. Go back to the Settings page;
7. Here you must type notch in the search bar at the top;
8. You’ll see a single result called Display cutout. Tap the link to go to the Developer options menu;
9. Just select Hide to hide the notch.

Removing the notch and replacing it with this sort of large bezel seems more familiar, right?